Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Total Spent: $2,500.00| Rating: 8

Pros:

extreme sharp, good construction, even very good with converters

Cons:

no SWD-AF, cheaper plastics

very sharp - even with converters - much to like about it - but I would prefer SWD-AF
we will need this lens for mFT!

MartinM

Registered: November 2008Posts: 31

Olympus 150mm f/2 Zuiko Digital review by MartinM

Review Date: 9/15/2012

Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Total Spent: $1,300.00| Rating: 10

Pros:

F2.0, weather sealing, IQ, size, weight

Cons:

nothing really

Now, thats my lens. The 300 f/2.8 I can get for free when I need it.

Stellar performance. 300mm of reach with an aperture of F2 is really cool. Not speaking about the price I paid for.

After adjusting the Front-focus on my E-5, putting in -4, this lens performs outstanding. IQ is fantastic and AF is fast an accurate.

It size makes it very portable. I can put it side by side in my Lowepro Fastpack 350, with 12-60 and 50-200

I still got to test the EC-20. The EC-14 and the EX-25 is perfect match.

Gives you a great telemacro lens too.

Works well, but not as fast on the E-M5. Tested it on that one too.

genotypewriter

Registered: November 2008Posts: 12

Olympus 150mm f/2 Zuiko Digital review by genotypewriter

Review Date: 6/14/2010

Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Total Spent: None indicated| Rating: 10

Pros:

My favourite prime on FT

Cons:

Not the most sensible choice if you only need a 300 f/4 (see details)

I like super-long teles and I've also used the ZD 300 2.8 too but the 150 f/2 was a more satisfying lens to use for general shooting. Even the general apperance of the lens is great. The bokeh, sharpness and colours were all very very good. This would be the first lens I'd buy if I get a FT camera.

All nice things aside, one still has to think about the practicality of such a lens. A 150 f/2 on a FT system is equivalent to a *300 f/4* (not a 300mm f/2) on a 35mm DSLR, both in terms of noise and DOF. If the buyer is not currently tied to the FT platform and just wants a stabilised 300 f/4, the ZD 150 f/2 is not a sensible option for the following reasons:

1. While there's no doubt about the image quality of the ZD 150/2, it is not better by a factor of approx 3.8x than a good 300/4 available for 35mm DSLRs. (The 35mm full-frame area is 3.8x larger than that of FT and so it is 3.8x less demanding in terms of spatial resolution). So a good 300 f/4 lens on a 35mm FF body will easily match or surpass the resolution of this lens at a much cheaper price. Demosaic'ing artifacts will also be much smaller on higher resolution FF images when final images are reproduced at the same size.

2. The lens is too big and heavy when compared to an equivalent lens on a 35mm DSLR.

3. The lens has no built-in image stabilisation or SWM despite point #2 above.

Conclusion: If you want this lens, by all means, go for it. You won't be disappointed. But if your motive is application-oriented and you have the freedom to choose another platform, go for a good, stabilised 300 f/4 on a FF body instead.

RRJackson

Registered: June 2008Posts: 6

Olympus 150mm f/2 Zuiko Digital review by RRJackson

Review Date: 6/22/2008

Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Total Spent: $1,401.06| Rating: 10

There are certain lenses that can constitute a reason to own the accompanying camera system. This is one of those lenses. At under six inches in length and under three pounds it's about half the size of most 300mm f/2.8 lenses, as well as being a stop faster and providing excellent results wide open with the DOF associated with f/4 on a 35mm lens. Using the in-body image stabilization on my E-3 I can shoot blur-free photos with this lens at 1/30th of a second. A lens with this field of view should require shutter speeds starting at about 1/300th of a second, but the IS works like a charm. IMO there's never been a better lens for concerts, sporting events, plays and press conferences.

OhWeh

Registered: January 2008Posts: 5

Olympus 150mm f/2 Zuiko Digital review by OhWeh

Review Date: 1/23/2008

Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Total Spent: None indicated| Rating: 10

Pros:

Fast lens with F=2, Very good optic quality, Fast AF

Cons:

Heavy and expensive but there is due to physical laws

A very good tele lens, high contrast and very sharp. Can be used with TC-14 and with TC-20 without visible loss in quality, even with maximum aperture! So you can get an very good 2,8/210 and a very good 4/300, too!